MPs rage over ganja farm delay
Published:Thursday | October 31, 2019 | 12:26 AMEdmond Campbell/Senior Parliamentary Reporter
A chorus of discontent greeted a large contingent of technocrats from the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries (MICAF) yesterday in Gordon House as lawmakers vented their frustration with the lacklustre approach by the Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA) in assisting small ganja farmers in becoming players in the emerging medicinal marijuana industry.
The political divide was indiscernible as government and opposition members of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) coalesced in their criticism of how small ganja farmers have been struggling, with little help from the Government, to become part of the regime regulated by the CLA.
Heroy Clarke, member of parliament for St James Central, recounted how, from the 1960s, small ganja farmers had been “bending backs, climbing mountains, not to mention running away from police, having sleepless nights out in the cold” to cultivate ganja.
He cited that hundreds had, in the past, been jailed in the era of sweeping laws against marijuana cultivation, possession, and consumption and now have a police record to show for it.
“I realise that the same people who back then fought tooth and nail to send the little man to prison are the same ones that are taking up everything to benefit from cannabis, and the little man who make it what it is today is going to be left out. It cannot be.”
Marisa Dalrymple-Philibert, Trelawny South MP, said she had become reluctant to applaud new announcements about assistance to small ganja farmers that have failed to materialise after years of discussion about the cannabis industry.
Annoyed by long wait
Chairman of the PAAC and Westmoreland West MP Wykeham McNeill expressed annoyance at the long period it was taking the MICAF to sort out land ownership at Orange Hill in the parish so that members of the Westmoreland Hemp and Ganja Farmers’ Association Group could begin operational activities under a cannabis project.
The MICAF said it has maintained dialogue with the community group to explore different avenues for addressing the issue and continues to follow up with the relevant agencies, mainly the National Land Agency, to identify property to facilitate cultivation.
However, McNeill said the delay was unacceptable.
“It has been over nine months trying to ascertain who has control of those lands. It is the most inefficient thing I have seen in ages that you can’t find out who have control of your own government lands. Something is absolutely wrong.”
As part of the Government’s poverty-eradication strategy, a Cabinet decision was made to enable the inclusion of small and traditional ganja farmers into the regulated cannabis regime. To this end, the Alternative Development Programme was conceptualised and implemented by the MICAF.
The ministry also reported that the CLA was developing a new facility for the issuance of transitional permits to participate in the industry, provided they have identified a downstream buyer for the crop produced.